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Your top 3 worst purchases ever


Hopefully none from me!

While many are asking what are the best preamps, best amps, best this or best that, wouldn't it be nice for others to know our worst nightmares with certain products?

:-)

My top 3s are:

1) Kora Eclipse preamp
From an Canadian member, the preamp arrived DOA. SInce it was shipped from Canada, return shipping cost and logistics are typically expensive and brutal. So the preamp was sent to a self-proclaimed Kora fan and expert in VA. Turned out, the repair cost was way more than I bargain for. The seller refused to fund it adequately. Ended up a super overpriced purchase with 2 months down time. Lesson learnt: Just return anything that is DOA even the seller talks sweet and offers to repair it to save you money.

2) Kora Galaxy Reference power amp
From the same Canadian member, this unit arrived with all output tubes mixed up. The amps kept blowing fuses and overheat. Bias pots do not work. Again, I was too nice to have it 'repaired' at seller's expense. Not a single penny was collectible from this seller, however. The unit was sent to the same Kora 'guru' who wasted near a grand of my money to fix it - turned out nothing was fixed, the unit suffered additional shipping damages, and I was labelled as a tube idiot by this repairman who just conned me $1k. Out of total frustration, I hammered the amp into pieces and sold it as scrap for $4 in Audiogon. That's a near $3k loss! Lesson learnt: Take anger management class.

3) Krell PAM-3 dual-mono preamp
Arrived working for first few days with noisy volume pot, then the unit caught on fire - the caps melted with lots of tar inside. Seller refused to take it back obviously since it was not DOA. Sent to Krell for repair, only to be told the repair estimate was near $3k (including $350 return shipping cost from Connecticut to New Jersey - $250 of which is for a Krell shipping box). Made perfect sense to me when I had purchased it for $550.

What are your lemons?
bsimpson
ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,243 posts
 
Ultra fi music stream DAC, Ultra fi iRoc DAC both left me cold I was immediately stuck by how much I did not like the sound, re sale was terrible too. Third was ridge street audio cables. They did nothing for me were expensive and again resale was terrible. There are others I'm sure but those 3 are the worst.
jond's avatar
jond
3,400 posts
 
KR Audio Antares integrated, weighed a ton, used crazy expensive tubes and broke fairly quickly. And a Supratek Syrah, I read all the rave reviews and this thing showed up and it was a poorly built piece where obviously all the designer care about was making it pretty, plus it never sounded very good. I also had a Graaf 5050 amp that looked great and also broke down a lot. Luckily since then pretty smooth sailing and I am off the gear changing merry-go-round.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
First big mistake:
Had a nice hafler Dh110 I built from a kit. enjoyed music a LOTT with it.
So I trade it in for a new Sony 1000 something first digital preamp. I stopped listening to music. I finally realized it was the stupid digital preamp. Grrrr.

Then I sold that Sony and bought a used Counterpoint S2000 preamp. nice.. while it worked. After breaking twice i traded it for some other useless junk. At least while it worked it was wonderful..

Then Stereophile, for giving high ratings to average stuff.
timrhu
2,778 posts
 
Bsimpson, you have had some terrible luck.
I have only had a couple bad buys here on AudioGon, but in both cases the seller made good. One was an Arcam integrated amp that was almost DOA. The seller took it back immediately. Another was a pair of speakers which received some damage to one speaker. The seller refunded half the price of the sale. That was more than reasonable.
There were a few items I've bought that didn't live up to the hype. But that isn't the seller's fault.
My really bad experiences were on ebay. Things like speakers in a box with zero padding. And the seller said "they were well packed" when I complained.
vegasears
922 posts
 
Listed below are my biggest mistakes but not my only, thank GOD for Audiogon.

I had my Counterpoint SA-20 upgraded to a SA-220 by Counterpoint. It came back veiled and with much less punch.

Selling my first CAL Alpha after they closed the doors. It was something special. I tried multiple DAC's and never recovered, that sound. I purchased another Alpha and it was good but different.

Purchasing my Thiel CS-6's. They caused me upgrade my entire system, twice! Please don't get me wrong, they are outstanding speakers. Yet, they require top notch amps with huge current ratings and a price tag to match. They currently sit in my listing room and are used when the mood strikes.
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